Projects Completed:

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Background Information:

The Fremantle Boys School Building is one of Fremantle’s oldest heritage buildings. The school was built in stages from 1854 to 1911 (further history of the site below).

Objectives/ benefits

Stage 3 of conservation works to the boys school targeted rising damp, masonry wall conservation, electrical and structural compliance work.

Stage 4 works have completed the internal conservation and compliancy work. All damaged fabric has been repaired and removed from site.

Current status/ timeline

Stage 4 works are now finished signalling the completion of all internal works. The building will now be occupied by DADAA, Fremantle Foundation, CircusWA and PianoEasy.

Background/ useful information

Beginning life as a one room school in 1854, the Fremantle Boys’ School, along with the Perth Boys’ School in St Georges Terrace, was the earliest government-built educational building in Western Australia.

In 1909 the school became a ‘Central School’ to provide more advanced and technical education for intermediate level students. The building reached its current footprint in 1912 with the addition of the southern porch and teachers’ room.

The school stood in large open grounds surrounded by a high limestone wall until 1901, when the Princess May Girls’ School (Fremantle Education Centre) was constructed on the northern part of the site and separated from the boys’ school by a high limestone wall.

In the 1950s and after continuous use as a school for over 100 years, the students from both schools were transferred to the newly completed John Curtin High School. The site then fell into disuse in the 1960s and by the 1970s the Fremantle Boys’ School was described as ‘deserted and ravaged by vandals’.

Restoration of the building was carried out in 1973-74 and the interior was adapted and refurbished to accommodate the Perth Institute of Film and Television (PIFT). Further conservation works were carried out 1989 by the City of Fremantle with assistance from a Commonwealth Government grant as part of the National Estate Program.

Fremantle Boy’s School is owed by the State and vested to the City of Fremantle. It was permanently listed on the State Register of Heritage Places in 2001.